Lawsuit dropped: Jawbone can sell devices in the US (if it can sell devices at all)

Rival fitness companies Fitbit and Jawbone have been fighting over a few lawsuits for the past couple of years, but Fitbit recently put one to rest. Just before the Christmas holiday, Fitbit dropped a case it filed with the US International Trade Commission claiming Jawbone had violated one of Fitbit’s patents. The trial for this case had been set for March 2017, and if Fitbit had won, it would have prevented Jawbone from importing its devices into the US.

In a report from The Wall Street Journal, Fitbit states: “Jawbone appears to be a different company. SEC filings of one of its biggest investors now value Jawbone shares as worth nothing, as well as indicate that Jawbone has filed for bankruptcy or is in default.”

There are no reports of Jawbone being in default, nor has the company filed for bankruptcy. Jawbone gave a statement to Recode which states: “By dismissing this action, Fitbit is no longer seeking to block importation of Jawbone devices, including Jawbone products in development. Jawbone believes this case—involving patents already found once to be invalid—should have been dismissed long ago by Fitbit.”

This is likely the simplest ending that any of the lawsuits between Fitbit and Jawbone will have. In April, the ITC ruled in Fitbit’s favor after Jawbone filed a claim stating its rival had infringed on some of its sleep monitoring and data output patents. Later in August, Fitbit came out on top again after the ITC ruled it did not misappropriate trade secrets from Jawbone.

Fitbit is definitely right on one thing: Jawbone is a different company than it was a year ago. In September, reports of Jawbone’s financial troubles surfaced after it cut ties with NexRep, the customer service partner that Jawbone reportedly hadn’t paid for its services. At the same time, all of Jawbone’s fitness trackers were listed as “sold out” in the company’s website. Now, none of Jawbone’s trackers is available on the site at all—it appears the online store at …